Anja Silja | |
|---|---|
 Anja Silja in 1968 | |
| Born | (1940-04-17)17 April 1940 (age 84) |
| Occupation | Opera singer (soprano) |
| Years active | 1956–present |
Anja Silja Regina Langwagen (pronounced[ˈanjaˈzɪlja], born 17 April 1940[1]) is a Germansoprano singer.
Born in Berlin, Silja began her operatic career at a very early age, with her grandfather, Egon Friedrich Maria Anders van Rijn, as her voice teacher. She sang Rosina in Rossini'sThe Barber of Seville inBraunschweig in 1956, followed by Micaëla in Bizet'sCarmen and Zerbinetta inAriadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss.
She had a breakthrough in 1959 as the Queen of Night in Mozart'sDie Zauberflöte at theVienna State Opera, conducted byKarl Böhm, and also at theAix-en-Provence Festival.France-Soir dubbed her "a second Callas." Other early roles included Leonora in Verdi'sIl trovatore, Santuzza in Mascagni'sCavalleria rusticana, the four heroines of Offenbach'sLes contes d'Hoffmann, Konstanze in Mozart'sDie Entführung aus dem Serail,[2] and Fiordiligi in Mozart'sCosì fan tutte.
She made her debut in 1960 at theBayreuth Festival, as Senta inDer fliegende Holländer. At Bayreuth (until 1967), she also sangElsa von Brabant inLohengrin (oppositeAstrid Varnay), both Venus and Elisabeth inTannhäuser, Eva inDie Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Freia inDas Rheingold and Waldvogel inSiegfried, among others. Outside Bayreuth, the soprano appeared inWieland Wagner's productions ofSalome by Strauss, Wagner'sTristan und Isolde,Die Walküre andSiegfried (as Brünnhilde),Elektra by Strauss, Beethoven'sFidelio, Verdi'sOtello, Alban Berg'sLulu andWozzeck (conducted byPierre Boulez). Of her Salome,Harold Rosenthal wrote inOpera in 1968:
Anja Silja's performance was a tour-de-force. Her voice is not beautiful by any stretch of the imagination, but it is clearly projected, and every phrase carries its overtones—psychological not musical—which suggest the child-like degenerate, over-sexed princess in all too clear a manner. Her nervous, almost thin body is never still; she rolls on her stomach and on her back; she crawls, she slithers, she leaps, she kneels…. There is no denying that this is one of the great performances of our time.
Additional new roles in the 1960s were Jenny Smith in Weill'sAufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny), Lady Macbeth in Verdi'sMacbeth, Violetta Valéry in Verdi'sLa traviata, first Liù, then the title role in Puccini'sTurandot, Lucy in Menotti'sThe Telephone, Cassandre inLes troyens (oppositeJon Vickers) and Renata inThe Fiery Angel. She appeared at theOper Frankfurt, in Toulouse, Paris, Turin, Naples, Stuttgart, Zürich, Barcelona, Geneva, the Netherlands, Budapest, London (Royal Festival Hall andRoyal Opera House),San Francisco Opera (her American debut, in 1968, as Salome), and Chicago. Her first Lady Macbeth, in 1967, was conducted byChristoph von Dohnányi, with whom she had a long relationship, including a marriage that produced three children. They divorced in the 1990s, during Dohnányi's tenure with theCleveland Orchestra.
Silja continued her career with appearances at Trieste, theEdinburgh Festival (Lulu, 1966), theSalzburg Festival,Metropolitan Opera (Fidelio andSalome, 1972), Paris (Schoenberg'sErwartung, under SirGeorg Solti), Berlin, Cologne (La fanciulla del West), Vienna (world premiere of Einem'sKabale und Liebe) and Brussels. Other new roles in this period were Emilia Marty inThe Makropoulos Case,[3] Leonora in Verdi'sLa forza del destino,Médée,Die lustige Witwe,Carmen (staged byJean-Pierre Ponnelle),La juive,Katya Kabanova,Tosca, Tatiana inEugene Onegin, andDie Königin von Saba (conducted byJulius Rudel).
In the 1980s, Silja addedLady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (oppositeChester Ludgin),La Cubana, Regan inLear, Prinz Orlofsky inDie Fledermaus (withKarita Mattila andJudith Blegen, staged byMaurice Béjart), the Kostelnička inJenůfa (at theGlyndebourne Festival),[4] Grete inDer ferne Klang, and the Nurse inDie Frau ohne Schatten (opposite DameGwyneth Jones as Barak's Wife).
Silja made her debut as a stage director in 1990 at Brussels withLohengrin. She then assumed the roles of Agave inThe Bassarids (at Carnegie Hall), Ortrud inLohengrin (inRobert Wilson's production), Herodias inSalome, Anna I inDie sieben Todsünden, Klytämnestra inElektra, Jocasta inŒdipus rex (oppositeRené Kollo), Mother Marie of the Incarnation inDialogues des Carmélites,Pierrot lunaire, Judith inBluebeard's Castle, Countess Geschwitz inLulu, Madame de Croissy inDialogues des Carmélites (herTeatro alla Scala debut, underRiccardo Muti, 2004; three years later she sang inJenůfa there), Míla's Mother inOsud, the Comtesse inPique-dame, and the Witch inHänsel und Gretel. She was first heard in Cleveland, Boston, Madrid, Leipzig, Prague, and Rio de Janeiro in these recent seasons. Her 2001 recording ofJenůfa, from Covent Garden, won aGrammy Award.
Silja now resides in Paris, having purchased the former home of the conductorAndré Cluytens.[5] In 2008, the soprano remarked that, following her performances inDialogues des Carmélites, that opera “had the most influence on my life. Of course people like Wieland [Wagner] and my grandfather had influenced me a lot, but I can only say that this piece really changed my life. I found it so amazing in the way that it depicted the destiny of those nuns and how they lived their lives that because of it, and out of my tremendous admiration for PopeBenedict XVI, I became a Catholic. Until then I had never been baptised, but I don’t think that you can just suddenly become religious. I think that some sense of religion and faith was always within me but that something was needed to bring it out and that opera did it. I’m very thankful that it happened and it’s a great help and strength to me.”[6] In January 2013, she sang the role of the Grandmother ("Babulenka") inThe Gambler, in Frankfurt, in the production byHarry Kupfer, and in 2017 she performed Schoenberg'sPierrot lunaire and was the narrator inGurre-Lieder in Hamburg, conducted byKent Nagano.
